Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
by Redd
Summary: Things like this happened to people all the time. Not to her please not to her. Not to their Dorothy. She didn't deserve it. She couldn't take it, not anymore.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: I don't own, so please don't sue, you guys know the drill. The title is a song by Elton John, my sister was playing it and gave me the idea. Sorta.

Huh. I guess it is Veteran's Day, huh? Are you supposed to say happy Veteran's Day? Well, if you're reading this and you're a Veteran, Happy Veteran's Day!

Had to make some changes.

* * *

There were a lot of things that Daniel had been expecting that morning. Major General Jack O'Neill had been there, just as he was supposed to be after the Atlantis team decided to return him. He was there for a meeting with Hank Landry and SG-1 to discuss the Sangraal and the Dragon after their near disastrous return. Vala had stolen three of his waffles at breakfast as Cameron and he debated who was cooler, Kirk or Picard. Teal'c had paid them little attention, instead focusing on his own breakfast. Sam hadn't either, she'd sat there and read some physics book or another and had her first cup of coffee and Fruit Loops. Cameron had shut up when Jack walked in, hurriedly standing at attention, Sam engrossed in her book.

"No, please, don't get up," Jack teased as he sat across from her, "for the last time, Mitchell, at ease."

"Sorry, Sir," was Cameron's reply as he once again took his seat across from Daniel, trying very hard to look like he wasn't listening and wasn't at all bothered by Jack's presence. It still made Daniel want to laugh.

"Good morning," Teal'c raised an eyebrow at the flippant tone, Daniel smirked, Vala was..intrigued, Cameron inwardly abashed, "Sir."

"She speaks," Jack took a sip of his own coffee and winced at the bitter taste, "What'cha reading?"

"Geek stuff,"

"Ah,"

His morning, for all intents and purposes, was a normal as they ever were. Vala proceeded to tease Sam until she thought she would no longer get away with it, Jack joining in on occasion, sometimes even Cameron. He and Teal'c defended her. Sam then ran them all in circles with something from her book.

Then they all shut up.

They all went to do their usual work. Teal'c went to help train the 'new kids' all the while probably scaring them more than they needed to be. Cameron was helping Vala with more 'Earth customs' because Daniel simply didn't have the time to it that day and because she need to be distracted from thinking about Adria. He and Sam were going over exactly what the Sangraal was, neither actually getting very far.

He wanted to know what secrets it held, to know exactly how the weapon was supposed to work.

She wanted to know why the hell the most powerful weapon in the universe was a glowing marble roughly the size of her fist.

It was an odd change.

Jack wanted to know what the most powerful weapon in the universe was a holographic glowing marble roughly the size of Sam's fist.

Both of SG-1's scientists looked over at the General who had taken it upon himself to make himself comfortable in Sam's lab and was turning back and forth on her desk chair, rolling a pen in his fingers.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing," Sam shook her head and smiled at him.

It was then, as Sam reached for her cell phone that Daniel knew that their world was about to change.

He never could have expected it.

"Carter," she answered, earning an amused look from both Jack and Daniel, each turning a frown as they watched her face fall, "Grace? Grace what happened?"

Jack rose from his chair and made his way over to where she was standing. Daniel also made his way over, and feeling rather stupid as to why the girl would be calling or, maybe, he figured, they knew another one, asked Jack, "Grace?"

"Gracie," was his friend's distracted reply.

Daniel blinked. When had she started going by Grace?

"Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can get a flight out," Sam paused, leaning closer to the two men in her lab for comfort. Her eyes were too bright and all of a sudden, he knew what was happening. Daniel watched as she became Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter, no longer just their Sam. She stepped away from them, stood straighter, shoulders squared. Jack removed a hand Daniel hadn't even noticed was on her back.

"There was an accident, I..I have to go," Jack nodded, reached over and handed her the keys to something Daniel wasn't aware of and just like that, she was gone. He assumed she was headed to the locker rooms.

"I need to talk to Landry," Jack shoved his hands in his pockets, before nodding uncomfortably at Daniel and heading out as well.

What the hell had just happened?


	2. Chapter 2

A/n: I don't own, please don't sue.

I almost didn't think this was going to go anywhere, but uh, wow, you gus liek it and I'm glad

* * *

Mark was dead. Karen and Andrew too.

It was a car accident. They were on their way to Grace's science fair.

Jack watched as Sam went into go-to mode. He watched from what had been his brother-in-law's couch as she ran about making arrangements, calling an uncle he never even knew she had, her mother's brother, dealing with the banks, talking to the school district.

Grace had hardly left her side and he was suddenly reminded of when they had lost Janet three years ago. He had seen her break down then, had seen her cry and cope and deal with the loss of her best friend.

He'd been in San Diego for three days and he hadn't even seen her sleep, let alone eat or drink. He'd explained to Hank about needing to be with her and needing to be with Grace and the other man had let them go before Jack had even gotten his explanation out. Daniel had nodded and told Jack to call him when the arrangements had been made, he and Teal'c wanted to be there. Vala had been quiet for a change, telling him to have Sam call her on Daniel's cell that she had decided to borrow, and Jack was grateful of the friendship that the two women seemed to be forming. Cameron had saluted him briskly, not understanding what had happened with Sam that would make the General run out but he wanted to know that she would be okay.

Sam didn't need the General, she need Jack, her friend and her husband.

He knew better then to push her. He'd let her come to him. He'd wait for her to deal with it, to let her wrap her mind around the fact that all that remained of her still newly reconciled family was her niece.

Grace dragged herself over to where he sat, eyes dark and face pale.

"C'mere," was all that was needed before the girl had curled herself up against him. What little time she hadn't spent with Sam she had spent with him. She'd cried into his shoulder when he'd first arrived, all ready hitting the growth spurt he'd been expecting, just needing to be held by him.

Sam had watched, leaning against the doorframe that led to the kitchen with an oddly detached look on her face, one that signaled to him that she needed him there just as much, that his presence was making all the difference in the world.

She didn't want to break down, not in front of Grace.

He'd met her and her brother and Mark and Karen at Jacob's funeral-had it really been two years all ready?- and had fallen in love with the youngest Carters almost as quickly as he had with their aunt.

Andrew had been tall for his age, nearing six foot at only fifteen. He'd had Jacob's eyes, dark and wise but filled with humor despite everything, and what Jack had dubbed the Carter Smirk. He'd talked to Jack about the Air Force and said he had been considering it. As a tribute to his grandfather. He had said that he hadn't gotten to spend the time with his grandfather and his aunt that he'd wanted too. He said that Mark didn't hate the Air Force. That he had bragged about how his little sister had flown in the Gulf War. How she'd defended her country at the risk of her own life.

If they only knew.

He wanted the Carter name to be remembered with as much honor as he held to it.

Jack was oddly touched but the determination in the young man's eyes.

Grace was everything Jack had imagined Sam was like as a kid.

Karen said she'd almost been suspended the week before. Something about a garage door opener and the cage doors for the rats in the science building.

"She's a Sam clone," Mark had said with a sigh, but Jack hadn't missed the pride in his eyes as Grace told her aunt about the science award she'd won.

The first few days with Mark had been a little bit awkward, but after the service he had pulled Jack aside and said that he'd better not let anything happen to his baby sister.

When they'd flown into Colorado for Thanksgiving with Sam and Jack, their goddaughter Cassandra, and their friends from work, Daniel and Murray, it had seemed to help heal the rift that had ripped Sam from her family.

Mark had even been excited that they'd gotten married and said that he'd been expecting it.

Jack had mentioned to Karen later, out of ear shot of the Carter siblings, that he had been surprised that Mark liked him as much as he did, that he thought Mark had been friends with Pete.

"After seeing the two of you," Karen shook her head, "I don't know what came over him, honestly. He saw that you loved her, that you were there for her. I guess he saw what he needed to see."

They had been going back and forth for all the major holidays whenever Sam was on-world ever since. Andrew had even spent a week of his last break with Sam, who'd had some down time coming after that bit with the Ori blowing up their ships, and they had been going over his application for the Academy.

Even Daniel and Teal'c and Cassie had become extended members, each asking about the other via Sam whenever they spoke.

They had a family, a real family for the first time in a long time.

When he'd last seen Mark it had been for Grace's thirteenth birthday about four months ago. He, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c, and even Cassie had taken a three day weekend and flown in as a surprise.

"So when do you think I'll be flying out for my niece's birthday?" Mark had asked, eyebrows raised and smirk firmly in place, as the two men watched as Sam and Grace tried to take on Andrew and Daniel and a water gun fight.

Jack had cleared his throat, "It's uh, not exactly the best time right now," he'd offered, admittedly rather lamely, not thinking about all the times he wondered that as well.

"Uh-huh,"

Mark had taken the guys out to the local bar and grill the night before they were due to fly back out, and thanked them for everything they had done for Sam in the last ten years. He knew he hadn't been the best big brother in the world and felt horrible about it, but he was glad that she had friends as good as the men he sat with.

Daniel had waved it off with a genuine smile, a gentle hand on Mark's arm and a "That's what family's for."

Jack wondered if it had always been that simple.

"Jack, Grace," Sam called softly, poking her head out of the kitchen, "I'm going to order some food, what do you guys want?"


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I don't own, don't sue, you know the deal.

Sorry that it took me so long to update, working on future chapters and getting ready for finals, you know how it goes. So I was putting the final touches on this and realized that I've never actually written Sam before, let alone an upset Sam, so I hope I do her at least some justice.

* * *

She still needed to contact the lawyers. She needed to get the last banks statements and she needed to withdraw Grace from school and start the transfer papers.

Grace would becoming back with her to Colorado.

Sam sighed and rubbed her forehead, ignoring the stiffness in her shoulders.

Jack and Grace had gone to bed hours ago. So should she. She needed to sleep, just like she had need the slice of pizza she'd had earlier. But she couldn't. Every time she closed her eyes...every time she closed her eyes she was fifteen and baking cookies, and her world was collapsing in around her.

It had happened again when Janet died. Cassie had needed her. Jan's sister had tried to fight with her about how Cassie should be with family. Daniel had lunch with the woman and her parents and all of a sudden Cassie was hers once again.

It happened when her father died. She'd broken up with Pete and not long afterwards told Jack what she'd been waiting for years to tell him. They'd gotten married three months later. Grace and Andrew and Mark had been a wreck and Karen too, to a degree. Mark had wanted to know why there was nothing left to sort out, how she had taken care of everything so quickly...

Now...now her world spinning too fast. What was she supposed to do with a thirteen year old girl? How would she explain going away for sometimes weeks on end? How could she explain to her niece when she came home covered in cuts and bruises and worse, that it was all part of her job? All part of deep space radar telemetry?

How would they-how would Jack explain it to her, when she didn't come home at all?

Grace was smarter than that. She'd know things didn't add up. Then she'd have lost everyone.

And when Cassie came home for the holidays and during the summer? What would she do then?

Sam decided that she was going to need a bigger house. The one she had now was perfect for her, and for the kind of infrequent visits from Jack and Cassie.

She'd go from having one to two and sometimes four, not counting team nights.

Oh, God, how would she explain about Teal'c? Admittedly, he wasn't so bad anymore, but what about Vala?

"Sam," the sound of Jack's sleepy voice made her jump. He plopped down next to her on the couch wrapping his arms around her, and she wondered how he'd gotten so close without her knowing. Sleepy Jack shuffled his feet, and if he wasn't wearing a pair of socks sometimes he grumbled about it being too cold, how had she not heard? "what'cha thinking about?

She snuggled into him, because she finally could and because she knew that she would break soon and she needed to be in his arms when it finally happened.

She was falling.

"I need to get off SG-1," she hadn't even been aware she'd been thinking it until it had slipped past her tongue.

Time, she needed more time. More time to spend with Grace and Jack and Cassie-her family- more time for the SGC and SG-1, more time to fight the Ori and to help Vala save Adria, more time to help save their galaxy.

When did she loose it all?

Was it when she had signed up for the program?

When they had lost Janet?

Was it when Daniel had stopped being a geek and started being a solider?

When they rescued Cassie?

Was it when she had joined the Air Force?

When her mother was killed?

Was it when they finally lost her father and Selmak?

Was...was it when she had stopped putting the galaxy first and married Jack?

"Sam? Are you sure about that? We-they-really need you right now," he was confused, she knew he was confused and he was upset that she'd even suggest giving up her position. He'd begun gently brushing a hand through her hair, and was absently rubbing the back of her neck.

The truth was, "What other choice do I have?"

* * *

All right, I don't think this was as long as it should have or could have been, but the muse decided that this was as good place as any to stop, so tell me what you think! 


	4. Chapter 4

Daniel could tell by the look in Sam's eyes that she hadn't honestly thought that they'd come. He knew she definitely wasn't expecting Cameron and Vala. 

"Daniel," she had began after the wake, unsure of herself and fidgeting, shifting her weight and breathing deep. He'd seen her like this before, briefly, when she'd dropped her walls and let him help her.

"Sam," he'd interrupted softly, cupping her face, and for the first time since the morning she'd gotten Grace's phone call, she looked him in the eyes. There had always been a bond between hem, one that no one else matched, not even Jack and Teal'c, though he was sure they had their own bonds as well. But he knew she was falling and he knew she needed her brother. He wasn't really her brother, but dammit, that didn't mean she needed him any less. That she had avoided him hurt beyond anything else he'd ever experienced. He needed her to need him, the same way she needed him to need her, "we're not going anywhere. We'll always be here."

And she broke.

He held her close to him, cradled tightly against his chest, one hand cupping the back of her head the other firmly wrapped around her.

He was her friend. More importantly than that, he was her brother. He was her brother and she was his sister and she needed him and he would be there for her in any way he or anyone else could think of that would help.

"It hurts," she croaked, hours later, after they'd found a couch to nestle into. She'd slept for a bit and Daniel was glad even for the short release from reality.

"I know,"

"I don't know how to fix it this time Daniel,"

"You don't have to,"

"Everyone needs me to,"

_That_ was it? She wanted to _fix_ it? She'd been trying to fix the unfixable because she was Sam Carter and because she could? She thought they expected her to fix _this_? Daniel doubted that anyone would ever be able to fix this. He pulled closer to him and pressed a firm kiss to her forehead.

"Everyone who, Sam?" he asked, his eyes filling with tears at the sheer helplessness in her voice. She was lost, "Grace? Jack? They need you to be okay, Sam. Nothing more. They need you to be Sam, their aunt and wife. Not Colonel Carter, savior of the universe, do you understand me?"

She nodded against him and he knew the crying would start again soon.

Teal'c had spent the service hovering protectively close to Sam and Grace, and so had he and Jack. Jack, however, had the added benefit of actually being family. Cameron had paid his respects, eyes sharp for anything that he could to, anything that was suggested he do, including when he turned up an hour before with two cups of their favorite coffee.

Vala...Vala had surprised him, though he wasn't sure what he expected from her in the first place.

He'd explained to her, after Jack had called that fist afternoon to explain what had happened and what was going, what Sam's family was like, about her mother and father, about Mark and Karen and Andrew and Grace. He'd explained about Jonas Hansen and Pete. He explained about women in the Air Force and everything she'd gone through to get where she was now, he explained about everything she was still going through. He explained about Cassie and Janet and the last few years that had broken her heart and nearly taken that sparkle from her eye.

Vala had sat and listened, no jokes or prodding, just listening and he wasn't sure if he'd explained for her benefit or for his own.

When they'd arrived, she'd been the first to hug Sam, and Daniel honestly thought it made a difference, however small it may have been. Sam needed her family. She needed Janet. Maybe Vala would be able to help Sam heal the wound that still threatened to consume her, to consume all of them.

Jack had said she was thinking about transferring off of SG-1. Becoming head of the science department or something.

He hated the thought of not having her with him when they went off-world. He felt safer with her there, knowing that they would be together. They beat death together and they saved everything together.

Maybe she just needed to be...normal.

Not that she could ever be normal, she was too special for that.

Maybe she had just been pushed too hard, pushed to far, broken too many times.

Maybe, like he had told her earlier, she just needed to be..._Sam_.

* * *

Hmm...I think I like writing Daniel. Anywho, tell me what you think! 


	5. Chapter 5

A/n: I don't own, so please don't sue, come on guys, you should knwo this by now.

I'm not too overly fond of this chapter, but it needed to be done, or at least, that's what the Muse told me. The next two I really like fo far though, and I guess this one is growing on me too. Just let me know what you think.

* * *

Jack wasn't surprised to find Teal'c standing on Mark's back porch after he'd put Grace and Sam to bed, leaving Daniel in there with them just in case something or another should go horribly wrong. And, maybe, to make sure that Sam actually slept for a change. 

"O'Neill,"

"Hey T," came his tired reply. This is what Jack had been needing the last few days. The comfortable silence that Teal'c just seemed to radiate. He'd missed the big guy's calming presence while he'd been in Washington and it wasn't until the two men were standing alone that he realized it. Well, he had, he'd merely chosen to ignore it most of the time.

"I am most impressed that you were able to maintain a civil conversation with Pete Shannahan,"

"Yeah, well, the last thing Sam needed was for the two of us to get into it," Jack had ignored all of instincts when Pete walked in the door. He knew, on some level at the very least, that Pete would be there. Pete and Mark were great friends, of course Sam would invite him, despite the very looming and ever present awkwardness. Still, when he'd seen the other man hug Sam a little too tightly and hold her a little too long he'd wanted to kill him.

"When shall you and Colonel Carter return to Colorado?"

That...was a _damned_ good question, "I...I don't know T. I thought...that she might want to stay here, not uproot Grace and all that."

Teal'c raised an eyebrow at the expression, but he had spent enough time on Earth to understand what it was that O'Neill was and was not saying, "How then shall she return to Stargate Command?"

"I don't know if she wants to go back. Every time...It's hitting her too close to home now. I mean, I know this was a freak accident...but so was the Doc and...and Marty. It's just been really hard on her, y'know?"

"Indeed I do, O'Neill. I do not believe that leaving Stargate Command will make any difference, however."

Jack looked down at his shoes, rocking on his heels. He felt the same way and he was mostly sure that Sam might not leave the SGC entirely, she was needed there and she knew that, but he had a sinking feeling that she was going to give up SG-1. For good this time. He'd certainly understand if she did, Hell, the entire base would.

"You and Danny leaving tomorrow then?" Vala and Mitchell had all ready left. Their plane should be landing within the hour or so, Jack mused. He idly wondered if Vala would call to check in with Daniel. Or Sam. Or any of them.

"Indeed,"

"I'll let you know what's going on as soon as I can,"


	6. Chapter 6

A/n: I don't own, so don't sue me.

Well, this is my first post of the new year, and I hope you all had happy holidays and were safe. I had posted a chapter six all ready, but then I realized that there was more that I wanted from the story and the characters and Daniel is such a great character to write and play with, I think I may actually like him better than some of my own originals.

So here is more to read an play with, enjoy!

* * *

Returning to the SGC without Sam had been harder than Daniel had thought. He'd done it two years ago because there had been the Ori threat looming, amongst other things, and eventually she'd been back and around and he remembered everything that he'd ever missed and that he'd ever loved about her. She'd come out of her shell and been happier and more confident than he'd ever seen her.

She was coming back.

They, that is to say, the original members of SG-1, had sat and discussed what options were available. It had taken the better par of the day that Grace had been attending her final day of school and returning her books and promising to say good bye to friends and most of Jack's patience. Judging by some of Jack's reactions, Daniel figured that they'd probably all ready had a heated discussion about events and things of the like, but he had no other evidence to support his theory but he knew that it wasn't unlikely. It happened every now and again, that's just the way things were. Eventually, that had gotten to the decision that Sam would return to active duty and SG-1 in three weeks, when everything was mostly done being sorted and Grace had been packed and moved to Colorado. If that didn't work out, Sam would become a permanent base scientist and only of off-world as a consultant.

They'd had three bids on the house since Daniel and Teal'c had left yesterday.

SG-1 was on the mission roster for the day after tomorrow. Mitchell had informed the other two men upon their return to the mountain, if a bit too enthusiastically for Daniel's liking. He knew that Mitchell didn't mean anything by it and that he probably just wanted to get things back into routine for when Sam got back so it would be easier for her to adjust even if it was marginally, and that Landry only meant for the best too, and that he was being irrational in his thoughts about them at the moment, because really it wasn't their fault, but he just _couldn't_ seem to quell the severe irritation that he felt towards them at the moment, no matter how hard he tried, and didn't take it personally when Teal'c tersely excused himself to meditate. He sort of wanted to hit Mitchell a little bit too. Simple recon mission to P6Q-2R7, he'd said. Daniel _hated_ simple recon missions. They never stayed simple recon missions and quite frequently had almost as many or more problems than they had on their saving the world binges.

Besides, now, he would be bored for his watch.

Since she'd come back, he and Sam usually had watches that were one right after the other. When one couldn't sleep for whatever reason or they needed to bounce an idea or a thought off the other they stay awake. Sometimes, they just soaked up the other's presence like a sponge because, really, they didn;t function as well without the other. Sometimes the talked about things that had happened recently. Like Cassie's honest to God letter to Santa requesting the things she usually did, like maybe them not no having to save the world for a week, and getting some leave because she missed them, no small explosions in Sam's lab that required her to be in the infirmary (she was rather squirmy about them in there now without Janet watching over them,) the usual stuff. But this year, Cassie had officially declared herself as pre-med, and wanted some of her mother's things, like her coat and her stethoscope. The thing that had made Daniel laugh was the request for a little brother or sister.

He hadn't laughed out loud, of course. Well, mostly. He'd let out a small snort and hastily explained to Sam that he'd been laughing at the way she had asked, not the idea of Sam having children.

"I just...I can't do it right now, Daniel," she had sighed dejectedly and for the first time it occurred to him that she might actually want that fairy tale. He'd always kind of pictured her with children eventually, in a sort of abstract sense. She was warm and kind and the most caring and wonderful person that he knew. She'd make an excellent mother, she all ready had been to Cassie to a certain degree, and it made perfectly logical sense in his head that one day she would have them, but this was the first time he had really considered that she might want them in the pretense of now rather than sooner or later.

"Have you...tried?" the words had left his mouth before he could stop them and he winced. Once, it would have been his place to ask that question. Once, they had been closer but recently things had changed. Vala and Cameron had changed that, but mostly Vala and they both knew it. Instead of Sam being the only women that Daniel thought about, Cassie was still a girl to him and thus exempt from that, the only woman that he loved more than his own life and most everyone else's, Vala was quickly becoming another. Oh, nothing had really changed that much. He didn't gravitate to her as much anymore, when he was stuck on a translation he didn't hop of down the corridor to her lab and they didn't stay up until 0300 doing their 'geek thing' but that was as much her doing as it was his. It wasn't that big of a change, but it was big enough that things had had to change about their relationship. They both knew it, it was inevitable, but they never spoke about it. It was getting better now that he'd finally gotten a clue, Sam had gotten frustrated with him and told him to stop being thick and ask her out or she would and that was why he'd had that disastrous dinner with her and despite what he had told Vala, he had intended it to actually be a date or at least like, a pre-date, and he and Sam were falling, more like crashing, back into old habits, more familiar and cherished habits and it was the best feeling in his world. He even went to her for her thoughts about it sometimes now and she told him about the necklace that Jack had gotten her for their first anniversary with as much love as anyone he'd ever seen, for it looked like the one they'd buried her mother in, one that Sam had loved unbelievably as a child.

But this, this wasn't about the Daniel and Sam who were trying to save their galaxy, or the Daniel and Sam who were trying to find a weapon that no one knew existed or fight off crazy aliens. It was about the Daniel and Sam who had been each other's soul for nearly ten years, the Daniel and Sam that were two halves of the same person who together could do anything.

She stared at him for a while, obviously not getting it and he squirmed a bit. Just because he thought she'd be a great mom didn't mean that he wanted to think about how she would become a mother. It was icky.

_Icky_? What the hell kind of word was _that_? He was a Linguist, for crin' out loud! Surely he could come up with a better word than _icky_.

"What?" he fidgeted again and then remembered that it was okay because he was _her_ Daniel and she was _his_ Sam and that all was right in their world again.

"Have you and Jack, y'know, tried? For a baby?" he asked again, delicately, this time with more his usual confidence.

He only had to look at her crestfallen and quickly concealed face and he had his answer, but he waited for her to tell him.

If should could, than maybe things wouldn't be so hard. He'd never stared at her so long while waiting for an answer. She was usually very forthcoming with her responses to him and he to her, and the fact that she wasn't made him wonder if made him wonder if things between them were all right or if he'd been imagining them. He'd thought for a moment that she might just dismiss him and head to her tent.

"While I was at Area 51. I told Cam that I had my own reasons for not wanting to come back. Then this thing with the Ori," she trailed off, her hand gesturing absently and he got it. He was slightly hurt that this was the first he was hearing about it, but he quickly brushed it away. She was telling him now and that was what mattered .

"You didn't want to come back because if something happened to you off-world..."

"There was no telling what could happen, but I wasn't willing to risk letting my child grow up without a mother. It wouldn't fair to them or Jack or the rest of you or me," he knew, probably even better than Jack, what she meant, and considering her logic, he would probably make the same choice, given the opportunity.

They had each lapsed into silence after that, neither willing to break the moment of just being able to be there and to be friends.

He wondered now, if that policy applied to Grace as well, and if she'd ever told Jack that she'd thought she'd been pregnant before she'd been on her little jaunt in space when the Ori had kicked their collective asses. The utter shattered look upon her face after taking the test had almost driven him to get her a kitten and he promised silently that he'd do everythig within his power to make sure that she _never_ had to look like that again.

She probably hadn't, he mused.

"Come on, Darling, let's go get some lunch,"

Daniel shook his head, but allowed Vala to drag him out of Sam's lab when he'd been working on his translations.

* * *

Okay guys, you know the deal, let me know what you think!


	7. Chapter 7

A/n: I don't own, don't sue me, yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, this was actually supposed to be chapter 6, and then it got reassigned to chapter 8, 7 would have been from Jack's POV, but he's been really stubborn lately and I got tired of waiting for him.

So here's the new (old/updated) chapter, and I hope that you like it!

* * *

Cassie had transferred.

Sam didn't know when or how or why, but upon arriving back in Colorado Springs, she had found Cassie lounging on her couch reading one of her course books. Cassie then proceeded to explain to Sam, while Jack and Grace were still outside and the two couldn't be over heard, that leaving the SGC and SG-1 was simply not an option and that she transferred from her school in Nevada to be closer to home and to help her family.

She was more than a little confused when Sam nearly broke down again, Cassie not understanding why Colorado Springs wouldn't still be home to her. This was where her family was, with the temporary exception of Jack, and where they always would be. Why wouldn't she still count Sam and Jack and SG-1 and Grace and the SGC as family?

Sam was also told that there was no reason to move, that she had always wanted to share a room with a little sister. Grace, having entered the house by that time, had blushed but looked honored none the less. The two girls had always enjoyed spending time together, and when the last few times they had been together it had taken three trips to their room from the adults to get them to turn the lights out and go to sleep. In a way, it reminded Sam of herself and Janet, and just knowing that made her feel much batter than she had in ages. She had also been informed that Cassie had all ready moved her stuff back into the guest room, and that she and Grace would sort everything out on their own because it needed to work for the two of them and no one else.

Sam had called something out as a joke, she wasn't even sure what it was. Something about posters and putting holes in her wall, she thought.

Rather unexpectedly, Cassie had grinned slyly at Sam and said the only reason they'd ever have to move was if Sam and Jack decided that there was another addition to the family. Jack rather hurriedly busied himself going to pick up Chinese, dragging Grace with him so she could get out and about and see the area again, to once again familiarize herself with the area best she could in the dark, so Sam had no excuse for avoiding the topic. Damn crafty girl.

"...Maybe later, Cass," Sam had sighed, almost unwilling to let the girl believe otherwise, and Cassie had squealed and hugged her.

"I always wanted a little brother."

"Cassie Fraiser, I'm warning you."

"All right, all right, but you're not getting any younger you know."

"Cassandra!"

"Right. Sorry. Mostly. Not about the brother part."

"I know."

And that was it. That was all it took for Cassie to untangle herself and flopp on the couch and read. Deciding to take advantage of a quiet Cassie, Sam had her laptop all ready up and ready to go, but for some reason she just couldn't make herself do the work. The silence was comfortable and Sam was perfectly content to just sit in the overly stuffed chair and watch her goddaughter read a medical book. It had been too long since she'd seen Cassie like this, too long since the two of them could just be and it was a welcome change.

"Cassie?"

"Yuh-huh?"

"Thank you. For moving back. You didn't have to do this, you know," Sam offered softly.

"Yes, I did," Sam began to protest but Cassie cut her off, "...You and Jack...and Daniel and Teal'c...You're all I have left. You've always been there when I needed you or when Mom needed you, and the same goes for Daniel. I guess if Teal'c ever really needed anything you'd be there too."

"Cass-"

"You always put what other people need over what you need Sam," Cassie had mumbled it so softly that for moment that Sam wasn't sure she'd heard the girl, "you did so much for me...and I can't even begin to thank you for any of it. SG-1 still needs you, Earth still needs you. I still need you, maybe more than them, but I know that what you're doing right now is what you need to be doing. It's what you should be doing, despite what other ideas and opinions I may voice. I figured that maybe I could help a bit by being here when Grace gets home from school, that I could watch her when you're off world."

Sam didn't know when Cassie had stopped being that scared little girl that had refused to let go of her and had become a woman. She didn't know when Cassie had started sounding more like Janet or when she had become the adult in the room. How had she missed it? Whatever it was it made Sam tell her.

"I won't come back one day, Cass," and there it was, out in the open for everyone to see. Stop the presses and hold the phone. Sam Carter was afraid. Straight forward, honest to God terrified. Cassie stared at her for a long time, so long that Sam almost thought she may have frozen.

"I don't think so."

"...What?"

"I don't think that's going to happen."

"Why?"

"Because fate doesn't suck like that. If you didn't come back, then so many people would be lost and alone. Jack and Daniel and me and Grace. Teal'c would probably wind up killing Mitchell, if not the rest of the guys too. Either that or be completely lost and head back to Chulak. Vala wouldn't have any girlfriends at all, and I think that the two of you could be great friends, Sam. So many people love you that it would destroy us if something were to happen to you. That and...you and Jack..you waited so long for this and I don't think that fate is going to take it away from you. If there is such a thing as fate, and I think that there is, it wouldn't so this, not to you or to any of us."

"You...you really believe that?"

"I have to."

* * *

Not exactly an ideal spot to leave off but tell me what you think anyway! 


	8. Chapter 8

A/n: I don't own, please don't sue. You guys know the drill.

I know this took a while, but I wrote out this chapter and decided I didn't like it at all. So I sat down to write somehting completely different (for _fictionpress_, at that, not even a fic, which never got written, by the way) and this came out. I wasn't sure I liked it because it took the story in a direction I wasn't sure I wanted to go in, or felt that I could...handle in a way that would do justice to the characters. But seeing as nothign else I wrote could compare to this (because I really _do_ like it) this is the new chapter.

Enjoy! And tell me what you think!

* * *

Things like this happened to people all the time. It was a rather frequent occurrence at the SGC, too frequent for the liking of any of the people that happened to work there. But not to her, please dear God, not to _her_. Not to their Dorothy. She didn't deserve it. She couldn't take it, not anymore. None of them could. 

The universe, Daniel decided, hated him. It hated him and Jack and Teal'c...and Sam. Her name tore the breath from his lungs, made his chest hurt like he'd been hit with a staff blast. In some ways he wished he had.

They had been ambushed by rather violent locals that had a level of technology similar to that of the Jaffa, and had apparently not been informed that the galaxy was mostly safe, save for the Ori and their Priors. They were on the very fringe of the galaxy and Daniel hadn't been all that surprised that they didn't know about the defeat of the System Lords or the Replicators. Unfriendliest bunch of people he'd ever met, though. Anyway, they'd been ambushed. They were always ambushed. It was a rule of sorts, he was sure. None of them had made it out unscratched, Daniel himself had three bruised ribs and a split lip.

They'd had to set off the C4.

Everything they'd had.

All of it.

Which, as it turned out, was quite alot. He never remembered having that much wth them before.

He didn't know when Sam had become their explosives expert, maybe she always had been and he'd never really been aware of it, but Mitchell had been helping Vala back to the Gate as Teal'c covered their sixes. He had been helping Sam place it.

Sam had ordered him to leave, to get to the gate and help Mitchell and Vala and to tell Landry to have defense and med teams in the Gate Room.

He made her swear that she would be right behind him, and he'd watched her set everything before he'd ran. He had tumbled thought the Gate before they had gone off.

She had been too close.

He'd left her behind. _They_ had left her behind. Even Teal'c had just managed to get through the Gate before it had shut down. He didn't say anything, he didn't have to, as soon as he'd seen him, Daniel had known.

She had covered Teal'c, outright and blatantly ordering him to go. She was still kind of their Team Leader, at least for the two of them and Daniel had no doubt that the others felt the same. She had never outright ordered anything from either of them that he could remember.

They'd had to go back. It had take more than two days for them to get back and to find her. She'd been running, moving so she'd be harder to track incase the natives decided it was a god idea to come looking for them. He couldn't even blame her. He had been remined of the incident with the Super Solider, about Jack telling him she had said 'no,' he remembered beign scared out of his mind and none of it could compare to this.

Three teams went through, and they had all come back along with Sam. It was the only high point of the mission. All of the data that the to of them had been collecting had ben lost. Their notes and suplies and his camera.

Severe concussion, Dr. Lam had said, internal bleeding, broken ribs, something about surgery, Daniel hadn't been listening at that point. He had run and slumped down against the wall in his favorite ISO room and cried. He knew that really, he should be used to this, and that doing so in an ISO room was hardly appropriate when Landry was calling Washington. He knew Jack would worry. He'd been back for almost a full week by now, maybe more, Daniel didn't remember. This had been Sam's first mission since...since the accident.

Teal'c had called Cassie, as far as he knew. The larger man had mentioned it the last time he had stopped in. Or at the very least, Daniel tought that he remembered the conversation, but it could have just as easily made it up within the confines of his own mind. It wouldn't be the rist time, and he seriously doubted it would be the last.

Best Daniel could figure he'd been hiding in that damn room for at least a day or two. Possibly more, he really just didn't know and he couldn't bring himself to check.

Jack would be coming, if he wasn't here all ready.

Cassie had Grace.

_Oh God_, what would they tell Grace?

"Daniel," a meek voice interrupted his thoughts and in the dark he could just make out Vala's concerned face and he slight hunch as she leaned heavily on the doorway and the crutch that she loosely held. He had to remind himself about her own broken ankle.

"What?" he didn't care that it had come out harsher than he'd intended it to, he was hardly aware of the wince on the woman's face. God, he was an ass.

Was this what Sam had felt like each time he'd died, or even nearly died? Had it torn her up and stole her very soul from her without warning? Had it made her physically sick each time she'd thought of him in this very same ISO room? Had it made her collapse and sob uncontrollably when she'd thought of his smile and the fact that she could very well never see it again?

Daniel made a mental note to never die again.

"Sam's, she's, well, she's awake," his eyes immediately met hers and he knew she wasn't angry with him despite how short he'd been with her when they'd returned, "she wants to see you, Daniel."

He only paused to thank her for the message, impulsively and almost giddily dropping a kiss to her cheek on his way to the infirmary. His ribs ached and the bruise on his knee really hated him as he ran along the concrete floors, but he _needed_ to see her. He needed to see her safe and alive and awake. He hadn't so much as glanced at Sam before he'd launched himself at her, trying to be mindful of her injuries but rather unsure if he were succeeding or not.

When he felt her hug him back just as tightly, he knew she was okay and that she understood.

"I swear, I'll never die again," he knew that she didn't have a clue as to what he was talking about, so he instead kissed the top of her head, each of her cheeks and her forehead just for a good measure. He had no idea how long they sat there, curled around and clinging to each other, but Daniel thanked whoever it was that been looking out for her.

He wasn't ready to let her go yet. He couldn't. None of them were.


End file.
